Brunch, the fantastic (and delicious!) combination of breakfast and lunch, is gaining in popularity at restaurants and food service operations across America. Technomic’s 2013 American Express MarketBriefing found that 9 out of 10 consumers surveyed eat brunch at a restaurant at least occasionally.
Dining out for brunch provides quality time with family and friends while offering flexibility in hours and a unique mash up of menu items. The MarketBriefing Bottom Line says, “Brunch is a daypart with extremely broad consumer appeal… operations that do not currently offer brunch should consider it.”
One way to entice customers to come in for brunch is to offer a wider variety of menu items, including more fresh food options like fish and seafood. “Typical” breakfast foods like eggs, bacon and bagels, can be made at home or at almost any establishment. But offerings like assorted oysters, eggs Norwegian (smoked salmon and hollandaise sauce), warm shrimp salad, and Trout Almandine as seen on Le Diplomate’s brunch menu in Washington, D.C., help differentiate and draw in customers. “The thought-process behind the development of the menu was a wide variety of items for people to come in and enjoy,” says Le Diplomate’s Executive Chef Michael Abt. “We want to appeal to everybody, we want to bring in people from all walks of life.”
